Earth’s past, present and future come together here on the northern peninsula of Antarctica, the wildest, most desolate and mysterious of its continents. Clues to answering humanity’s most basic questions are locked in this continental freezer the size of the United States and half ...

Sheep or goat? China’s Lunar New Year has stirred a debate over which zodiac creature is the correct one — but Chinese folklorists dismiss the fixation on animals as missing the point. Traditional astrology in China attaches different animal signs to each lunar year ...

Flower nectar contains a bouquet of chemicals that may help fight parasite infection in bumblebees, a study said Wednesday. The findings throw up clues for helping honeybee colonies that are battling mysterious but catastrophic decline. Biologists in New England tested eight nectar compounds on ...

Spider silk may lose its claim as the strongest known natural material after researchers found that limpet teeth are tougher. Spider silk is hailed for its strength and structure, but researchers in Britain have discovered that limpets — snaillike sea creatures with conical shells ...

The tiger snarled as a doomed chicken flapped helplessly in its mouth and onlookers ogled the sight. Such “entertainment” is common in China, but campaigners say it is putting big cats further in the jaws of extinction. “How ferocious, he doesn’t let anyone come ...

Scientists on Thursday described Chinese fossils of two shrew-size creatures that were the oldest-known tree-climbing and burrowing mammals, showing that early mammals in the Jurassic Period had already claimed a variety of ecological niches. Agilodocodon scansorius, an omnivore that lived about 165 million years ...

Scientists have unraveled the mystery of how venom from the Costa Rican coral snake causes seizures in its victims, a finding that could boost research into schizophrenia, epilepsy and chronic pain, researchers said Monday. The recipe involves a pair of proteins called micrurotoxins (MmTX) ...

Police say a shark that killed a Japanese surfer off Australia’s east coast was a great white measuring between 3 and 4 meters (10 to 13 feet) long. Tadashi Nakahara, 41, was surfing off Shelly Beach near the New South Wales town of Ballina, ...

A hunt was underway Tuesday for a large shark that killed a Japanese surfer on Australia’s east coast, as experts said fatal attacks remained rare despite three deaths in as many months. Tadashi Nakahara, 41, died on Monday after a shark bit off both ...

Medo is in trouble for doing what all dogs do: barking. A fed up neighbor in a northern Croatian village has won a temporary court order that says Medo must stop barking at night. If not, owner Anton Simunovic must pay some €2,800 ($3,160). ...

Australia has always been unique, from its geographical isolation at the bottom of the Earth to its infamous bevy of venomous creatures. Now, scientists have uncovered another unique — and disturbing — facet of Australian life: the country’s mammals are going extinct at an ...